Just before new year, i was listening to the heaviest rain i'd heard in melbourne for years. Such a delicious sound. i revelled in the delights of pounding water.

But of course, most of that water was going down many drains into the bay, because we don't have a huge embedded system to catch, keep and recycle storm water.

The smart guys at the top of town want to throw billions of dollars at private companies, to build a desalination plant which is going to use coal-fired electricity, add pollution and greenhouse gases, and line the pockets of those private investors for years to come

.. when research shows you're so much better off catching what falls out of the sky.

(um, evidence, michael? Well, Bob Brown and the Greens say so. Average households receive 8 times the water they consume, apparently.)

Here's Bob talking to a rally against desalination.

Bill Mollison once said that all the solutions are there already. It's just the political will, and getting past the stakeholders.

One of my dreams for '08 is that the people of Victoria will demand intelligently innovative, sensible and truly sustainable solutions to the water crises, and that we'll be rewarded with the best new system in the world.

And i reckon that means we collect and recycle storm water.

Oh look, here's a bunch of sane and clear-thinking locals investigating the whole DeSal/PPP setup (or maybe they're commie free radicals?). Apparently we pay for the desalinated water even if it turns out we don't need it.

i'm sure you know already that the uk/us partnership interceded in 1953 to overthrow an Iranian democracy. However, many people in the US do not know; so there's a group called Just Foreign Policy who are touring the states in an attempt to educate fools and eradicate ignorance.

They put together a video explaining how the 1953 oil coup happened. Definitely worth watching for the background info.

Those wretched jumped-up baton-twirlers and lever-twisters in the White House of Bush aren't thinking of invading another sovereign nation, are they? Surely not .. are they completely moronosic (sic) ?

Generations of doctor-turned-politicians, their brains and hearts stolen by ignorance; .. cruelly spurned by the staffers of inconsiderate party leaders whose compassion extends primarily to the underprivileged.

Thank you Kevin for having the guts to use the S words - Sorry and Stolen.

Thank you to the authors of "Bringing them Home", the 1997 report which received such a stony and stubborn silence for so long.Thank you to all the people who have cared about justice for the Stolen Generations.Everyone i spoke to cried yesterday. i had tears welling up all day.

Yes, there are problems our nation must face; yes there are people who continue to weasel their way around the facts, or who stare into the face of pain and refuse to see it. Of course, there's no chance of short-term solutions. But at last, the whole freaking parliament has begun to open up to the reality of what happened in our past.I'm staying focussed on the positive, me. Nothing can spoil such a day. Pauline's gone, Jeanette's fossil-brained hero is out of the Lodge, and Kevin is at the helm. Go Kev.

What about this? A man who leads his opponents into compassion, rather than into fear or abusing them! Kevin pulls out the understandascope:

Mr Rudd acknowledged that some Australians were still opposed to saying sorry.

"I say to non-indigenous Australians -- imagine for a moment if this had happened to you," he said.

My favourite moment was when he spoke about Nungala Fejo, and had asked what she would like him to say.

A sombre Mr Rudd told an emotional story about an Aboriginal woman, Nungala Fejo, who was taken from her family outside Tennant Creek in 1930s and never saw her mother again.

"I asked Nanna Fejo what she would have me say today about her story. She thought for a few moments, then said that what I should say was that all mothers are important.

"And she added: 'Families -- keeping them together is very important. It's a good thing that you are surrounded by love and that love is passed down the generations. That's what gives you happiness'."

How long since a leader of the nation used the word love on the floor of parliament?

mmmmmm, sweet honest compassion is such a joy and a relief.

Much better than mean-spirited wrangling with words and evasion etc ..

Here's a song i think you'll like.From the xxteens (via imageyenation), a warning. With a funky beat.It's called "How to avoid becoming a terror victim".

The accompanying video (below) could be hilarious, unless you are Easily Scared, or on the lookout for Seditious Material; in which case it would be Terrifyingly Insulting to your Sensitivities. Beware: attempted humour and satire.

And this is how i felt after watching the video.

I feel a bit nervousI feel a bit madI feel like a good time that's never been hadI feel a bit fragileI feel a bit lowLike I learned the right linesBut I'm on the wrong show